Jeff Haynie on thinking under pressure, contracting and entrepreneurship... and other things I learned recording his DevJourney

This week, I published Jeff Haynie's #DevJourney story on my eponym Podcast: Software developer's Journey. Among many other things, here are my main personal takeaways:

Jeff started coding games when he was a teenager. He wrote code during high-school, but never imagined he could some day earn money out of it.

Jeff sold his first software when he was a teenager. Back then, he had to send the software through the mail.

When Jeff exited high school, the idea of a CS Degree was still not common. Instead, electrical engineering was the norm. That's why he joined the army in electronics warfare, working on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. The two major things he took out of his time in the army is "thinking fast (in critical situations)", and "remain cool and think logically (in critical situations)".

Out of the military, Jeff went back to school... but started a business on the side, printing a newspaper, which took over his life. After one year, he got a job offer as a software developer and dropped out of school.

Entering the private sector, Jeff learned how contracting works. And in the matter of months, Jeff went from employee, to employee of a contractor-company, to running his own contracting business... which he refused to sell just before the Dot-Com boom.

Having a deep technical mind and a keen interest for business was a great combination back when Jeff started his companies. This was a key element of his success, his unique marketable skill.

In 2006, after selling his company, Jeff teamed up with a developer he had enjoyed working with, and they both contracted together, while searching for a new company idea. They were amongst the first to have their hands on iOS development. Recognizing that creating apps would be painful for Web-Developers, they created Titanium.

Recently, Jeff created Pinpoint, an platform for engineering teams to synthesizes their activities to measure impact, anticipate risks, and unlock potential. Again, a p(a)inpoint Jeff felt, and solved for himself first... and then made a company out of it.

Advice:

"Try to learn and understand how artificial intelligence is going to impact the software development process"

Thanks Jeff for sharing your story with us!

You can find the full episode and the shownotes on devjourney.info.
Did you listen to his story?